>> next, a look at the life and legacy of ronald reagan. the mpaa recently honored the life of the former president. we will hear remarks and out of a former white house chief of staff, who highlighted how reagan's pactiv to replace a life in his political career. this is a little more than an hour. >> welcome, all of you, and thank you for coming by the motion picture association of america to our screening room to participate in a daylong set of activities in which we recognize the contributions of rhatigan as the leader of our country, but also as someone -- of ronald reagan as the leader of our country, also a similar plan and iconic world in the film industry, including television. this being the 100 anniversary of the president's birth, how can we celebrate his contribution to our country, but also to this remarkable industry that has affected all of our lives in so many different ways. the idea is that we would gather together people who knew him and worked with him to share their thoughts about his life as president, as governor, but how to almost 30 years of his life in radio, television, and film affected those years of public service. thank you for being here to lead us through this conversation. we will be bringing together a lot of people who serve in the administration with president reagan to celebrate his life. once again, this is the 100th anniversary of his birth. but me begin by asking the chairman of the board of trustees of the ronald reagan foundation, as well as the chairman of the centennial commission to recognize the -- centennial commission recognizing the president's contributions to kick us off. >> thank you. and thank you to the mpaa for hosting a series of events. i think many of you have heard rhatigan say, in hollywood, if you did not sing -- ronald reagan say, in hollywood, if he did not sing or dance, he became a breakfast speaker. [laughter] this year, his centennial is being celebrated, being examined and universities across the country and around the world from garver square in london and freedom square in budapest. and we are delighted that something so important his development, his years in hollywood, could be addressed by the nba. it is terrific there is such a distinguished group of people -- addressed by the mpaa. in this regard there is such a distinguished group of people here. there are a lot of people that our journalists and worked with him on his staff and are his friends. keep this panel on this. [laughter] and i'm delighted that my colleagues who will help keep everybody honest. john, i'm glad you got the extra work. with that, thank you for hosting this series -- series of events. >> thank you. john, the program is yours. >> it is an honor to be here. as fred noda, he is chairman of the reagan library, but also my boss at the mpaa. i will like to say his interest -- internet remarks were brilliant, as i knew they would be. [laughter] i came of age politically during the reagan era. being a little kid i was always interest in politics but it was not until the reagan era that i started to follow politics more. the 1980 election occurred when i was a senior in high school. my first presidential vote was in the 1984 election. i have a deep interest in the understanding of the reagan presidency. one thing that struck me was at the time, much of the coverage seemed to look at politics as ronald reagan's second career. he was an actor and then he made a turn and began a political career. it seemed to me that in the years since then, we have developed a more sophisticated understanding which puts the emphasis not on a second career, but on continuity between the two careers. much of what made reagan and effective politician flow from what he understood in his entertainment industry career. and many of his strong ideological beliefs took root in those years. our understanding of reagan has changed, and i understand as someone who has covered the white house and then overseas and covering the white house even still that our understanding of the presidency itself has changed thanks to ronald reagan. we now understand this is a supreme communications job, a storytelling job. barack obama had a much shorter public career than ronald reagan coming to the presidency, but he was seen as somebody who was picked precisely because he had those communication skills. now that he is stumbling we tend to put the accent on that he is stumbling in part because he has lost control of the narrative, as they say. that analysis itself flows from our understanding of the reagan presidency, how president succeed in the modern era. we have a great panel here to talk about these issues. we will open it up to the audience, with some time left to get your questions. i should also say, welcome to our c-span audience. one day i will say to you panelists is, give us stories. we may not appreciate just how much time marches on. ronald reagan is a figure of fascination to today's young people. my colleague at politico wrote his college thesis on ronald reagan and is looking to possibly publish that into a book. james, like other people of his generation, has no contemporaneously memories of the reagan presidency, and that is true of many. those old chestnuts that you have been telling for years, these are valuable things. [laughter] >> it is a good living. >> i know. i encourage you to all share your recollections because they are supremely valuable. let's start out with a general question and i will go down the panel. what was the most important thing ronald reagan took from his time in the film industry that informed how he behaved as president, and dry at? ea?andri >> i do not think there was just one. >> by the way, place yourself in those years. you were there. >> as a kid. i was a junior reporter. [laughter] i actually came to the white house in september of 1981. i was covering energy issues and general assignments and then, of course, the assassination attempt and the aftermath of that. and then in september of 1981, i came to the white house and was there for the duration for the really historic and exciting events afterward. i think his philosophy clearly changed by his experiences in the industry. we can talk about his view towards taxes and the burden of taxation and toward the labor movement. a new contract that through his experiences with the screen actors and going forward. eventually, what i thought was the defining moment of his presidency, the petco decision. -- padco decision. you see the way he performed as an actor and his theatrical experience was really dominant. it takes him right through the years with general electric theater when he was on the road on factory floors come out and about really learning some of the fun and -- on the factory floors, out and about really learning about some of the fundamental issues. one of the experiences that, for me, defined him in terms of foreign policy was when we first went to the dmz. there he was looking out over this village, this fake village that the north koreans had set up, blasting propaganda back at our g i's and the south korean army. and he is wearing camouflage and has few glasses, and i was there an dandala was the are casting that morning. and you shark out, mr. president, what do you see out there? and with perfect timing he lifts the field glasses and looks out and i'm like one of his predecessors, he took the lead scott -- event capped off of the glasses. [laughter] he looks out and he says, well, it looks like a hollywood back lot, only less important. [laughter] that was sort of the synthesis as actor and politician and as strong anti-communists. that was a moment. >> ken, how would you answer that? >> before reagan became president everybody used to say, how can you be an actor and be president? reagan, again in perfect timing, would say, well, how can you be a president cannot be an actor? -- and not be an actor? right on target. his views on tax cuts came from hollywood. he used to remind the staff that when he was a "b" movie actor, the marginal tax rate was 9%. if you would get tax rates down, i would work more. credit and 10 cents on the dollar. and if i work more, more jobs would be created. not just jobs in hollywood, but assures when you use the pressure is in theaters and -- ushers when you used to have ushers in theaters and popcorn maker's. his work with the screen actors guild was fundamentally important in his willingness to lead negotiations. say i don'tused to like compromising with ronald reagan because every time a compromise with him, president reagan gets 80% of what he wants. and reagan will -- with sigel i will take a% every time and come back the next -- and reagan would say, i will take 80% every time and come back next year for the other 20%. these routes fundamentally began in hollywood. you see the sense of timing. everybody remarks about the reagan signature line at the berlin wall, but if you go back and look at the tape, it was the skill of an actor that delivered that last line. because as he said, "mr. gorbachev, come to this wall" and a place erupted. and he said, "mr. gorbachev" and he was drowned out by applause and noise. and he stopped. and then he said, "mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall." it was the actors' timing. >> were you there for that? >> yes, at that time i was deputy chief of staff before becoming chief of staff. the last comment i would make would be what andrea talked about with the bond the president had with the american people. i remember being with him in a limo in the autumn of 1988 campaigning in new jersey for an unsuccessful senate candidate and for vice president bush. and we came around a bend in the road and an old, old lady with a babushka on had a handmade sign that said "we love you in death valley days, but we love you more as our president." he turned to me after spotting it on the road and said, that is the second-best sinai have ever seen -- signed i have ever seen. and of course my play the straight man and ask him what the best one was. and he said, ohio state university, 1984, 10,000 students and a cute one in the front row who held up a sign that said, "he is old, but he's cute." [laughter] it is the thing with the american people that he always thrived on. he loved audiences. he was energized by people. my last comment, lyn nofziger, , said to me in my years in the white house, president reagan spent most of his time in the oval office. when i was coming back to work for president reagan he said, open the door to the oval office because president reagan does better when he can make eye contact, when he can see facial expressions, when he can hear the into nation. yes, he will read all of the briefing papers, but he gets personal contact, he feeds off of people. i know i said my last comment. to set him up, the best part of acting was, "i can't hear you, sam." [laughter] >> he heard every word. >> until he heard a question he wanted to enter. -- answer. [laughter] >> i have come to believe the presentation in life, particularly politics, is well over 50% of the game. if you do not have sought -- have ideas that make sense, you will get caught up. >> you covered the carter beat and stayed on through the reagan presidency. >> that is right. >> you were there for the whole darn thing. >> i covered the harding administration. [laughter] >> you are old, but cute. >> you can have great ideas that can save this country, but no one will listen to you because you are not interesting and you do not project, it does not matter because we will not know your name. reagan had good ideas as well as the presentation. but the presentation, as we have all said, is so important. we have been to so many occasions there where it was a staging by the great mike deaver, god rest his soul, did by peggy noonan, delivery by the old actor. and i mean no dismisses of him by saying that. let me give you one and move on. remember in 1984, those of us of a certain age in the first debate with the -- with walter -- walter mondale, he fell apart. his wife said he was overtired and had not been briefed. and we thought he was falling apart. should we reelect this guy? so he came up with a wonderful line about how words are important. and when he was asked about that, his punch line was, "i will not make my opponents relative youth and inexperience an issue in this campaign." those are the words, but it was the pictures i remember. the camera was on walter mondale. he laughed, not at ronald reagan, clearly, with ronald reagan. a mistake, walter. and then with the camera on ronald reagan, he took up a glass of water and took a sip and put it down with a sense of satisfaction on his face. at that moment, it was game 7, match. it was over. we saw this so many times where ronald reagan would win the day. this is the last thing i would say. but neither of us has gone longer than bill clinton when he said, "one more thing in conclusion." [laughter] he would ignore as when we would ask him questions. sometimes it did not work, but usually it would. he asked the president in the fall of 1982 when ronald reagan's gallup approval rating was 37% -- barack obama is 44% today and we wonder if he is going to be reelected. at that point, white house correspondents are really tough. when they are down, you kick them. he called on me and i said, mr. president, tonight you have blamed the continuing recession on congress and the mistakes of the past. doesn't any of the blame belongs to you? yes, he said, for many years i was a democrat. [laughter] >> andrea, when you were covering the white house, did you have a sense that you were a supporting actress, an extra on the set? >> at times, yes. >> how did you feel about that? >> many times i was coming in behind other correspondence and i was doing the weekend shows. i told them that i felt i had to be at every event ronald reagan had because i had to really observe him and get to understand him better and understand his reactions so i could anticipate reactions. this is what we did back in those days working seven days a week by choice just because i did not want to miss an opportunity to see him in public. we did not see president very often in private, and still don't. but he really redefined the public presidency. i thought that was very important. during the mondale campaign in the rose garden from i shouted out ... in the rose garden, i shouted out and he heard you very much when he wanted to. and i shot it out, "what about mondale's charges?" and without skipping a beat he said, well, tell him he should pay them. [laughter] which tells you something because he could not have anticipated the question precisely. for those who said he was not sharp and on point, just completely missed the point of this man. the fact that he could draw upon the precise story -- they were old chestnuts, many of them, but he would come up with an anecdote to portray what he wanted to portray and it tells you how much in the moment he was throughout those years. the performance was part of the political effect. i felt very strongly this was a very creative politician, but at the same time, someone who was not afraid to be totally transparent and honest about his lack of interest in something. for instance, 1983, his first summit chairing what was then the g-74 russia was admitted to the then g-8 -- g7 before russia was admitted to the bench-day. margaret -- to the g-eight. margaret thatcher had not yet been admitted and between mineral and trudeau he was out flying toward a bit. there were protests everywhere in europe. he was over schedules -- over schedule. debose profound over scheduling where he fell asleep with the pope. it was one of those days were israel went into lebanon the sunday night of the summit. he flew to rome in the early hours and fell asleep at a statement -- steak dinner at windsor castle. i think everybody learned that was not the way to scheduled president. sunday night he was given a big screen by the then chief of staff and other members of the camera -- cabinet. this is his moment on the world stage. monday morning comes and they go, mr. president -- said jim baker -- any questions about the briefing? and he said, well, boys, i did not open the briefing book. "sound of music" was on television last night. [laughter] that was perfect reagan. he knew what he liked and he wanted to watch "sound of music pier -- sound of music." >> the debate in 1980, the report -- important with jimmy carter. ronald reagan was slightly behind in the polls in october of 1980. but people wondered, could we trust this guy? is he going to get us in iran nuclear war with the the soviet union and tear up our social security card and all that? if you read the transcript, at one point, jimmy carter has nailed him on his past believes and what he said when he was doing ge and all of that, social security should be disbanded. it sounded like the earlier. -- i mean, a few weeks ago. [laughter] carter nailed him and it is reagan's turn to answer the charges and he said, "there you go again." he does not answer the charges at all, but he won the audience. >> billing on sam's story about nuclear, the question was, was at reagan close -- crazy enough to push the nuclear button? and reagan reminded us, it helps if the opposition thinks i'm a little bit crazy. it makes all the sense of the world. that gives me some leverage. it is andrea's comment about the anti- seven summit. -- the g-7 summitt. reagan laid out his economic package and everybody pooh- poohed it except for a margaret thatcher. she came to his defense. when they left the dinner that evening he caught up to our and said, thank you. it was really unnecessary, but i appreciate you coming to my defense. and reagan would tell the story, and maggie just tapped me on the elbow and said, it is okay, running, it is just boys being boys. [laughter] every incident had a moral to it, had a story attached to it. one of the things we are skipping over is, every saturday morning now the president of the united states speaks to the american people. that was conceived by ronald reagan. his five minutes to not go through sam andria and have a straight shot to the american people -- sam and andria and have a straight shot to the american people. and he would spend a lot of time on the scripps. he developed the idea of what he wanted to say. the speech writers work did and invariably, he wrote all of those groups. and then used to fuss -- was it four minutes and 52 seconds? he used to sit there in the oval office with a stopwatch to make sure he got it right. actors training. this is my opportunity to speak directly to the american people. >> the thing we know about great athletes, great actors, they only make it look easy. a lot of what makes them good comes from hard work, preparation honed over time. what reagan talk about that? the specific techniques that made him an effective public presenter? >> that reminds us of several things. one was, never fear after a puppy or a cute kid. number two, always leave them laughing or crying. number three, figure out a story that makes sense for the moment so people can relate. >> would he say these things? >> no, but he would say, i'm going to do this or i am going to do that. for example -- and maybe rick perry should listen. reagan taught us all, never say, i want to make three points. he would say, i have several points to make because invariably he would get lost. even a st. skilled actor -- even a skilled actor. you pick up all of these little things. it is also the best communicators study, rehearsed, rehearse again. on the way to the berlin wall, he was reading his text for the last time. he knew it. he knew it cold, but he was reviewing it. and he got to that last famous line and said it is going to drive the state department boys crazy, but i'm going to leave it in. t